August 6, 2018

Tensions Escalate Between Trump Supporters and the Press

The left is deeply concerned about the increasingly inflammatory rhetoric from the President.

The right points out that the mainstream media and Jim Acosta in particular have a demonstrable bias against Trump. Moreover, protesting is very much in the spirit of democracy.

“This isn’t a matter of Trump violating some abstract, airy-fairy ‘democratic norms.’ This is the president whipping up hatred of the media in tweets and public appearances, watching it blossom into a reporter becoming a target of hate at one of his rallies, and then expressing his satisfaction with how his supporters are acting on his messages. This is not the way leaders of a democratic country are supposed to behave.”

“Like all of us [the press] sometimes [makes] mistakes. A few for the political press that come to mind include... the botched banner headline on the Chicago Daily Tribune front page after President Harry S Truman defeated Thomas Dewey in 1948; the less-than-incisive coverage by many in the run up to the Iraq War; and the erroneous predictions of a Trump defeat in 2016. Be that as it may, the role the press has played and will continue to play in being a voice for the people and a check on indiscriminate power cannot be overstated.”

CNN

Some in the media posit, “Journalists should not be the story... Trump is making us the story by making us the in-house villain of his rallies... we’re playing into Trump’s larger purpose, and his likely 2020 theme: Any news that is unfavorable to him is fake.”

Washington Post

The UN Human Rights Council weighed in: “We strongly urge that President Trump and his administration and his supporters end these attacks.”

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

The right points out that the mainstream media and Jim Acosta in particular have a demonstrable bias against Trump. Moreover, protesting is very much in the spirit of democracy.

“The liberal media still don’t seem to understand that their over the top hostile coverage of President Trump is working to his benefit. Instead of reflecting how they can restore public trust, which remains at record lows, they double down on their condescension for Middle America and continue to reveal a systemic bias against the president.”

The Federalist

“What Mr. Acosta doesn’t understand is that the anger and hostility and loathing he sees on the faces of Trump supporters in his video is a reflection of the same hostility they see on the faces of anchors, reporters, and analysts on his network. Night after night for years... decades, CNN has talked down to, belittled and ignored a wide swath of American voters. ”

Washington Times

. When the media gets the vapors and pretends that is a national emergency, it only reinforces the views of those who mock them. It also makes them hypocrites.”(Red State)

"Reporters need to stay combative towards Trump but be consistent and not come off as mewling by a jilted girlfriend. The critics need to remember protests are covered by the First Amendment and not some kind of attack on the freedom of the press.”